Railway-spike.



No. 874,454. PATENTED DEC. 24, 1907. B. SWANSON.

RAILWAY SPIKE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 10,1906.

INVENTOR ATTORNEY ERNEST SWANSON, OF BAY CITY, MICHIGAN.

RAILWAY-SPIKE.

Specification of Letters Patent.-

Patented Dec. 24, 1907.

' Application filed May 10. 1906. Serial No. 316,091.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, ERNEST SWANSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bay City, in the county of Bay and State of .l\'lichigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway-Spikes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the. invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to spikes more espe cially intended for use in securing rails to ties, though capable of other applications as well, and in the accompanying illustrations .l have shown one embodiment of my invention, one object of which is to provide a spike containing less material than the four cornered spikes hitherto in use.

Another object is the provision of a spike which will not cut or bruise the fibers of the tie or sleeper into which it is driven.

A correlated object is the provision of a spike which will be firmly clasped by the fibers of the tie or sleeper throughout its full length.

A still further object is the provision of means tending to cause the spike to incline toward the rail as it is driven into the tie.

Another object is to provide a spike for rails which will oppose a broad surface to the base of the rail.

To these and other ends my invention consists in certain novel features and combinations of parts or their-equivalents such as will be more fully described hereinafter and particularly pointed out in the claims.

in the accompanying drawings, Figure 1, is a front view of my invention, Fig. 2, is a side view thereof, Fig. 3, is a perspective view, and. Figs. 4 and 5 are cross sectional views on the lines a:a.-- and yy of Fig. 1.

The spike A herein shown is substantially triangular throughout the major portion of its body 1, the sides of which form an approximately equilateral triangle as shown in Fig. 5, the body portion being surmounted by a head 2.

I am aware that triangular spikes havebeen patented heretofore, but I do. not know of any wherein the longitudinal edge 3 of the spike is located on that face of the s ike opposite to the overhanging head, the ace 4 of the body portion beneath the overhanging head being plane and flat, the head 2 over I hanging the flat rear face 4, the body of the spike where it merges into the head being thickened and curved as shown at 5 to conform to the angle of the base portion of a rail and to oppose great strength to the tendency of the rail to slip or n'lovelaterally.

The upper end of the body of the spike is approximately rectangular as shown at 6 in Fig. 3, the opposite rectangular corners 7, 7, on that face of the spike opposite the overhanging head, merging into the sides of the triangular body 1 in tapering wings 8, 8, having sharpened edges, the rib or edge 3 of the triangular portion of the spike extending be.- tween the diverging tapering wings 7 '7, at

its upper end and being preferably of greater height than. the wings, as shown in Fig. 4.

Thelower end of the spike is slightly curved away from the overhanging head as shown at 9 and terminates in a chisel edge 10 beveled on-both-sides, the edge, owing to the tapering of the lower end of the spike, lying nearer to the flat face 4 than to the rib 3 although very slightly curved toward the rib which latter is gradually reduced, as shown at 11 until it merges into the point or edge of the spike, the sharpened corner of the rib being retained throughout its length. In other words, I provide what I call a scoop point, most fully brought out in Fig. 3, the lower inclined. portion 11 of the rib 3 cooperating with the edges of the plane face 4 to form recesses on opposite sides of the inclined portion 11, such recesses ada ted to receive the fibers of the tie as the spi' e is driven in and to spread them apart gradually rather than tearing the fibers away.

In driving my spike the same is placed in an upright rather than'in an inclined position and driven in the usual manner. The chisel edge 10 severs the fibers of the tie or sleeper which are spread-apart 'as the spike enters, the edge of the rib 3 pressing the fibers back and compacting them but not crushing them and the spike enters in adownward direction until the tapering wings 8, 8, engage the tie whereupon the head and upper end of the spike are caused to bear over and crowd against the base of the rail to tightly clamp the same, the head overhanging the body of theispike on all sides in order to shed .moisture therefrom and prevent it from obtaining access to the point on the tie into which the spike is driven chisel edge.

ing'inwardly beneath the rail as it is driven site sides of a rail are liable to meet before I Too much stress cannot be laid upon the fact that the fibers of the tie are not cut by i the angles of the spike and owing to its uni grooved faces no short broken fibers are crushed and distorted as the spike is driven 1 home, the only cutting occurring at the Thus it will be seen that the fibers of the tie can tightly grasp the spike f on all sides owing to the fact that they are t ungrooved and also that the fibers are merely 5 separated and pressed back instead of being crushed, cut or mangled.

The inset given the spike by the wings S, 8, is gentle in accordance with the curved taper of the wings and the spike is securely held in place, it being found in practice that a much greater leverage is required to withdraw one of my spikes than is required to withdraw one of the grooved triangular spikes. Owing to the tapering of the wings 8, 8, a very slight groove 12, is formed on opposite sides of the rectangular portion 6 of the spike which grooves located at the upper end of the spike as they are, permit the previously com ressed fibers of the tie to expand a very 'ttle, gripping thespike closely and thus serving as a stop to prevent the stalrting of the spike by the vibration of the rai From the foregoing itis evident that I have devised a spike on scientific lines which need not be set at a certain angle when; driven. Furthermore, the broad flat face 4 of the spike which extends from point to head thereof, prevents the spike from inclinwhich action would 0 erate to reduce the amount of. bearing s ace of the head of the spike on' the rail flange and also the points of spikes arranged to incline inwardly-on oppo- 1 the s ike has beencompletely driven.

' It is evidentthat changes might be made in the form and arrangement of the several parts described without departing from .the

spirit and scope of my invention and hence- I do not wish to limit myself to the exact construction herein set forth.

Having thus fully disclosed my invention, what I claim as new is 1. A spike comprising an overhanging head, a rectangular neck, a triangular body and projecting divergent wings on that face of the spike opposite the overhanging head, the wings extending from points near the lower end of the rectangular neck and merging into the triangular body.

2. A spike comprising an overhanging head, a rectangular neck, a triangular body, that side of the body furthest removed from the overhang of the head being provided with a sharp angular edge, the upper end of the angular edge merging into the rectangular neck, and divergent projecting wings springing from points near the lower end of the rectangular neck furthest removed from the overhang of the head and on opposite ends of the upper end of the angular edge, the wings merging into the triangular body on opposite sides of the angular edge thereof and laterally of the overhanging head, the wings adapted to automatically incline the head of the spike toward the rail.

3. The combination-in a triangular spike,

3 of a point comprising a chisel edge, one face of the spike at its point being unrelieved, a rib gradually increasing in size springing from the chisel edge opposite the unreheved face and from a point near the center thereof, the unrelieved face of the oint of the spike being curved toward the rifibed face to form a scooped oint, those portions of the ribbed face lying etween the rib and the side edges of the unrel-ieved face cooperating to form gradually disappearing recesses on opposite sides of the rib at the point of the spike.

In testimony whereof, I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

I ERNEST SWANSON. Witnesses:

NORMAN J. MGLEAN, RALPH S. WARFIELD. 

